Quote:
Originally Posted by asjogren
What clout do you authors have over the publishers - like MacMillan? Does your contract allow you to drop? Can you publish the next with a different publisher? Is it exclusive, or, can you publish your own eBook somewhere like SmashWords?
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Many traditionally published author contracts have a clause that reads something like, 'publisher has right of first refusal on next book.'
This varies in wording--some only get right of first refusal in the genre, some only get right of first refusal for a series, some get it for anything the author writes.
I'm not sure there is an easy answer to your question, but in general, the author doesn't have a ton of power to wield in many cases. IT's damned hard to get published in the first place. There's some loyalty involved, there's a lot of hard work--on the part of editors, artists, publicity, copyeditors--and the author. So this mess doesn't do them any favors and just walking away isn't likely to be a great choice for anyone.